Today was a relaxed day with less schedule. We started by going to the school this morning and enjoying the kids. The students come up and practice their English skills from the youngest to the oldest. It's very cute to see! This is the sign at the entrance to the Orphanage grounds.
The walk to the school always leads us past the houses and multiple animals in the road. The side streets off the main road are beautiful!
We had to check in at the school office building and give them copies of our passports. They asked to keep them on file in case the police come by so that we are authorized to be there.
A note on the school, A Heart for Wisdom: the school has pre-school through 11th grade and is hoping to add 12th grade this coming year. The last time we were here they were adding a high school grade each year hoping to go to the 12th grade. There are 500 students currently and last year they had to turn 200 students away because they don't have room for them. Most parents know how important it is for their children to get an education and this school has a stellar reputation for the education. Kit has said many times parents come crying and begging for their child to be accepted into the school. Alfven sat through one of those meetings last trip.
If you ever want to donate to either the Orphanage or the School please let us know. It truly doesn't have to be a lot. Any amount helps and ours is a God of multiplication :)
This wheeled cart sells snacks outside the school everyday.
The house next to the school sells snacks through this opening/window also.
While hanging out, Panna came over and we chatted for a while. She is in 9th grade and really likes school.
The kids play a game with a string that they make into a square with 4 kids at the corners and then they jump over and onto it in an order. It's very fun to watch them play.
Once the school day begins, everyone goes into the assembly room and has worship to start the day. Shoes are always left outside. Even when we went to the market to buy the skirts, we left our shoes outside the seamstress shop.
If you ask many kids from the orphanage, worship is one of their favorite parts of the school day.
Dara is getting some first aid from Alfven. He has an open wound that has a bit of infection where the strap on his flip flop goes between his toes. I found it yesterday when I was sitting next to him and he was feeling sick. The bandaid came off pretty quickly but it should heal soon.
More wash today for the girls. They offered to wash the table cloth we've been using. I think they enjoy playing in the soap and water in this hot climate.
We headed to the younger school on the orphanage grounds again and the kids had another fun time with the camera. Alfven turns the viewfinder so that the kids can see themselves. The boys were a little more forceful getting into the screen than the girls were.
And more patty-cake....you can see them holding their hands up waiting. I never thought I would work up a sweat playing patty-cake but it doesn't take anything around here to sweat.
Anna is enjoying the dogs here. This is Lion and the dalmatian is Lady. Kit makes the joke that he has 40 kids living here and no one pets the dogs :) Everyone has dogs here and they run around free but at night they are brought in and used for guarding the houses while the people sleep. Since most houses don't have doors this works well. Lion and Lady are used for guarding the Orphanage even with the fence surrounding the property and they stay close.
The older part of the school comes over to the grass at the Orphanage for their PE class. This is the 10th grade class practicing soccer. It was about 92 degrees and high humidity at this time.
This is a picture of how the school staff stop the traffic on the road when the kids get out of school. It works well as the kids walk, bike or moto away.
These are motos waiting to go. If you look at the guy in the red shirt on the moto, he has 4 kids with him riding. Here they pile people up as many as can hang on to get where they are going.
Grace cleaned the rugs today for chores,
and it was Anna's turn to sweep. The boys stayed with their burning the trash and dishes.
This is a tree that lots of the kids have carved their names in. On is one of the girls here that we were all excited to see again! She's a good friend to our girls and we have written. I tried to get a picture of her running Grace around in their cart but she was too fast.
Dara came running over to Alfven. I think they have formed a friendship :) Dara is 7 years old.
Anna and Chantrea were helping to feed the rabbits and cows for chores today. Chantrea is another of the girls we have kept in contact with from friendships from 2 years ago.
Soy! Gotta love Soy! He is a man from the village with unique challenges. He doesn't talk but someone came and taught him some American Sign Language. He also is not shy and will work with motions until we communicate. He is also very caring and enjoys playing with the kids.
Before dinner Kit came down with a lizard on a leash! Everyone had fun! Kit and the boys made the girls squeal as they tossed it at them.
Ream and Adah flew in from the States and it was so great to see them! Adah had fun with the lizard her Daddy caught for her. Then the pet lizard got passed around and Anna got a turn too. Anna chose to let him go so I cut the string and he ran off into the gardens.
There was also some soccer and Benjamin joined in.
The girls played Ninja and Grace joined in that.
Ninja even moved to the pool area when the sun started setting. Only one girl fell in the pool so that was good :)
We ended the night with Alfven teaching the rest of Romans 12. He did a great job and the kids had fun laughing and talking about spiritual gifts and love.
"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:2
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